Germany’s Olympic champions had no answer to the finishing power of Wales rowing cap Graeme Thomas and his GB quadruple scull as the Brits took gold at the World Cup Regatta in France today, hitting the front with 500m to race to storm home nearly a length clear.

There was also gold for Cardiff Metropolitan graduate Helen Glover reunited with Olympic champion pairs partner Heather Stanning by nearly two lengths, while Wrexham Olympic silver medallist Chris Bartley took bronze in his GB lightweight four.

Former Sale Academy rugby player Thomas took European silver last month in Belgrade with crewmates Sam Townsend, Pete Lambert and Charles Cousins, seven months after taking GB’s first ever world championbship men’s quadruple sculls medal with bronze in Korea.

And in Aiguebelette they completed the set with a fantastic last 500m surge past Germany that left the Olympic champions at anchor.

With Thomas calling the shots from the bow seat, GB went through the first quarter 500m mark in third behind the Germans and Canada, and had squeezed two feet in front of the north Americans by half-way.

Germany still had half a length’s lead with 1,000m to race, but Britain steadily reeled them in, hitting the third quarter just six feet down before bursting past in the run-in to race home nearly a length clear in 5mins 44.4 secs, with Germany second and Canada taking bronze by feet from China.

Wrexham strokeman Bartley’s final took the opposite track, with Olympic silver medal crewmates and brothers Richard and Peter Chambers and bowman Mark Aldred, as the GB lightweight four blasted out to lead at 500m, wary of the starting pace of world champions Denmark who pushed them into silver at last month’s Europeans.

But it was New Zealand who hit the front in the second quarter, as the Danes also pushed past, with just a third of a length covering the first three boats at half way.

And the Kiwis kept pushing out to a length lead with 500m to race which they held to the line, with Denmark taking silver from GB by half a length, the Brits crossing in 5.55.3 with half a length to spare on the US.

For six-foot four-inch Vicky Thornley from Holt near Wrexham, her women’s double scull with double Olympic medallist Fran Houghton strugged to get a foothold in their medal race, passing the 500m mark in fourth and fading to fifth in the run-in, two and half lengths off Australia’s gold medal winners.

The Welsh woman chose to do the double earlier in the season after showing lots of promise in the single last year, and she and the selectors may be tempted to rethink the strategy for the next World Cup in Lucerne.

Llandaff’s world U23 lightweight singles finalist Zak Lee-Green placed a creditable third in the B final for ninth overall after pushing back from fifth early on.

Chepstow coach Robin Williams’ all-conquering women’s pair saw Glover swap her world and European pairs champion partner Polly Swann for London 2012 crewmate Stanning, but she didn’t skip a beat, leading from the off to come home four seconds clear of America’s top duo.

The GB men’s four of Andy Triggs-Hodge, George Nash, Mo Sbihi and Alex Gregory were even bigger winners, demolishing the challenge of Olympic silver medallists Australia by a full five seconds.

Olympic champion Kat Copeland was back on the gold standard with victory in the women’s lightweight doubles with Imogen Walsh, where GB’s B duo Charlotte Taylor and Eleanor Piggott came from fifth in the last 500m to grab silver.

The GB men’s eight took silver chasing home America, Ruth Walczak was second in women’s lightweight singles while Mat Gotrel and Paul Bennett took bronze in the men’s pairs, albeit some five lengths behind the Kiwi Olympic champions, who are unbeaten for six years.

GB’s women’s eight, strengthened by Swann, took bronze by feet from China, but had no answer to the double whammy of Olympic gold and silver medallists America and Canada who finished in the same positions more than two lengths clear.